Dictate into any Mac app without sending your voice to a server.
Press a shortcut, speak, and Wave pastes the transcript at your cursor.
Version 0.4.2 · macOS 14+ · Apple Silicon & Intel
Also available for iOS
Wave is a menu bar voice-to-text app that runs entirely on your Mac. Press a shortcut, speak, and the transcribed text pastes into whatever app you're in. Powered by WhisperKit on the Apple Neural Engine, so your audio never leaves the machine.
- Press Option+Space (or your custom shortcut)
- Speak. A floating preview shows your words in real time.
- Press the shortcut again (or click the menu bar icon) to stop.
- Transcribed text gets pasted into the active app.
Wave works as push-to-talk or a toggle. A floating preview shows confirmed and tentative text while you speak, then the result lands in TextEdit, Notes, Slack, a browser, VS Code, or any other app with a text cursor.
Language detection, filler removal, silence auto-stop, sound cues, and Whisper model selection are configurable. Wave can also transcribe existing audio files and keeps a searchable local history that you can export.
- Download
Wave.dmgfrom the latest release - Open the DMG and drag Wave to Applications
- Launch from Applications
- Grant Microphone and Accessibility permissions when prompted
- The Whisper model (~460MB) downloads automatically on first launch
| Permission | Why |
|---|---|
| Microphone | Records your voice for transcription |
| Accessibility | Pastes transcribed text into the active app via simulated Cmd+V |
- Swift + AppKit (native macOS menu bar app)
- WhisperKit for Core ML-optimized Whisper inference
- KeyboardShortcuts for global hotkey management
- No sandbox (required for the Accessibility API and global hotkeys)
Found a bug or have a feature idea? Open an issue.
Made by santiagoalonso.com